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BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2004

Regional division of postal services may be postponed

Dividing up the four postal services by region is unlikely to occur when privatization begins in 2007, government sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2004

Consent given to Sumitomo Trust for top court appeal

The Tokyo High Court gave the go-ahead Tuesday for Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. to appeal its ruling allowing merger talks between UFJ Holdings Inc. and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2004

Japan hopes opening bond sales to foreigners will solve woes

The Finance Ministry is increasingly hoping to sell Japanese government bonds to foreigners. And the economic recovery is forcing this effort to be accelerated.
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 18, 2004

Shakespeare speaks for modern times

A struggle for control at the heart of a state followed by the assassination of the leader; division between rival noblemen and their factions; the resulting civil war; the death of a nobleman's wife by suicide; and lastly the ritual suicide of all the original conspirators against the leader. Sound...
COMMENTARY
Aug 18, 2004

Democracy depends on modernization

MANILA -- For all practical purposes, the internal affairs in most countries have ceased to be purely domestic affairs. Whether we like it or not, one of the consequences of globalization has been the erosion of national sovereignty. In economic matters, national boundaries have long ceased to exist....
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2004

How will postal privatization help?

Japan's postal savings system, along with mail and insurance services, is to be privatized over a 10-year period beginning in 2007, according to the guidelines drawn up by the government's Economic and Fiscal Policy Council earlier this month. The question is how to transform the system into a viable...
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 18, 2004

Steps to musical heaven in Berlin and the Bible

Not one, but two of the all-time greats of the musical theater are now playing simultaneously in Tokyo. This is the second visit (the first was in 2001) of the Broadway version of "Cabaret," which won four Tony Awards in 1998 and has just finished a six-year run in New York. There is also a rare revival...
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2004

Starbucks Japan's profit surges

Starbucks Coffee Japan reported Tuesday surging profits for the quarter through June 30, marking a more than 10-fold improvement from the same period last year as cost cuts helped boost earnings.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2004

Eight indicted over vote-buying charges

Prosecutors indicted Yukihiro Yoshida, a former Diet member from the Liberal Democratic Party, and seven others Tuesday on charges of buying votes with money that came from the Japan Dental Association.
EDITORIALS
Aug 17, 2004

No need for gloom over economy

Japan's current economy can be likened to a patient nearly recovering from illness: He is allowed to go outside the hospital when weather permits, but he is confined to bed again to rest if he is exposed to cold air and feels poorly.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2004

Millionaires don't live up to glamorous image

People may have notions of millionaires as ostentatious, bejeweled, big-spending clotheshorses, but the reality is that most -- and there are many -- keep a low profile.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2004

School's alumni fight controversial history textbook

The widow of a former prime minister and other graduates of Tokyo's prestigious Hakuo High School said Monday they are fighting to keep the Tokyo board of education from approving a textbook they say glorifies war.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2004

Sex with teens puts director away

Film director Akiyoshi Imazeki was sentenced Monday to a 28-month prison term for buying sex from two girls, aged 12 and 14.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2004

Millionaires don't live up to glamorous image

People may have notions of millionaires as ostentatious, bejeweled, big-spending clotheshorses, but the reality is that most -- and there are many -- keep a low profile.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2004

Former Hansen's disease patients from South Korea are denied payout

The government on Monday rejected a demand for compensation from more than 100 former Hansen's disease patients from South Korea, saying that those forcibly quarantined in former Japanese colonies are not eligible for aid from Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 17, 2004

Collecting your pension dues

After those who leave Japan, hand in their gaijin cards and apply for their 2.4 month refund, the remaining millions of yen they've paid into the system stay in Japan, where the money is used to pay pension payments for those they left behind.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Aug 17, 2004

What's the economic forecast for Japan?

Hiromi OzakiStudent, 19
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / A GAIJIN'S TALE
Aug 17, 2004

It's raining umbrellas

In the first few months of living in Japan I often used to go out for a walk during my lunchtime.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 17, 2004

Mosquitoes, surgery and cheap words

More on mozzies A reader named Rodney was interested in information about "ka" (mosquitoes) in a July column. He says there are few things he hates in this world, even among the insect family, "but I do abhor mosquitoes!" He did some research on mosquito repellents about a year ago and learned that...
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2004

Vodafone names ex-DoCoMo exec as chief

The Japanese unit of wireless giant Vodafone Group PLC said Monday it has named Shiro Tsuda, former No. 2 officer at rival NTT DoCoMo Inc., as its president and CEO.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight